Took a break from that and tuned in the Parlocha show.
I heard On Green Dolphin Street playing and heard the
sound of Monty Alexander without immediatley knowing the
artist.

Yes, it was that same Monty Alexander from the same period
of the album Here Comes The Sun. On this one he was still
playing in that style. It was like the piano was tuned in
a certain way that was identifiable because I picked up on
it immediately. MA has a lot of records out both as a solist
and backup musician to the greats.

And, not surprisingly, when Parlocha made the on-air announcement
he said that that album called "Monty Strikes Again" was never released on cd either.

He's in the top three of the jazz pianists who can play fast
and not 'let up' through the whole piece. Oscar Peterson
is another one. I'm still trying to think of a third.

Manualb, did you ever get that vinyl?

I'm not acquainted with this series nor would I know how to get them.

BTW, not only Ann Bancroft recently passed. Also Oscar Brown Jr.
He is someone who is often overlooked in the period of the 60's
to the present. I can still recall airchecking some of his
songs from a table radio to reel to reel from a station in
New York. And I can remember the lyrics to a Brazilian melody
he did as I write this.

The classics are well-preserved. My concern is always those things
which may be forgotten and are only contained within memory.

That's the function of online archiving and point to point distribution.

Even acts that have long standing 'appreciation societies' as
they call them in England (or fan clubs as we know them) seem
to have a problem keeping the artists work available.

At this point I always think of the English band leader Ted Heath.

Not all of Ted Heath's work is memorable. It's mostly a dance band
and the fan club shows members in snooty settings in tuxedos. :-|
(At one time I got some sample newsletters from the group.)

But there was a Golden Age of this band in the early to mid 60's
that had (for me) the best arrangements and performances I had
ever heard. These became The Paladium Concerts. And the Paladium
Concerts are out of print and hard to find.

That Monty Alexander record called "Here Comes The Sun" was put out
by a German label called BASF-- prob'ly associated with the
tape manufacturer. There is no reason for them to hold such
things out of print. And so, if a file share can find these, I'd use it.

I'm rambling now. But writing about Germany, I heard a band
... a studio group under the direction of a fellow named Jiggs Whigham. Carmen McCrae has performed with that band as well as
Alan Farnharm.

In all this I wonder about all the things I haven't heard at all.

Regarding the re-mastered jazz albums; they are 200 gram vinyl pressings; I bought all they had, 14 albums. If these exist then somewhere there are others not of the same ilk but of the same mystery.
The concept that there are people doing this is what intriques me.
Forget that they are vinyl but that they are even here at all is fascinating.
In the words of Jerry Seinfeld," Who Are These People?"

Where do the best speakers come from? And the most elegant designs?

Mostly Japan and Master Nagaoka.

And where did Brian Setzer and the Orchestra record their
only live dvd? Hmmhmmm.

At the same time there's a growing mainstream interest in
_anime_ here; so much so that the graphic novels have been picked up
by Barnes and Noble. And the fan sites do their own subtitling.

I would love to know how that ties into the dvd authoring market.

lon-- former _otaku_

An otaku in transalation is a rabid enthusiast. The closest
thing we have to the word is "animation nut."

At the local Blockbuster (back when blockbuster was new around
here,) they even had a documentary of sorts called "Otaku No Video"
which means 'otakus on video'... interviews with these mostly
young professional men and their fantasy lives around the
characters.

The whole Japanese animation thing is fascinating. It'll probably
give you cool points with your kids to know about it.

In the last few years what Americans see reported about anime
is usually some muckracking about extreme scenes in some of the
... here's where I'll lose it.... theres a word for these
naughty anime that I forgot.

Anyway, at it's best, what the anime does is explore many
themes that, since Woreld War II the japanese people could not
express in art because !.) their country was destroyed and 2.)
the Marshall Plan forbade any political or cultural statemenets in art
about the bomb.

So no film industry to speak of. What was left was animation. That's
why
the _anime_ are full length feature films with themes of
nuclear destruction, saving the Earth, the the horrors and beauty
of technology and what that technology does to a people. The clearest expression of that is a film called "Akira". And there's another called "Ghost In The Shell" which has recently had a sequel.

For a direction as to where anime might be going, look for "Final Fantasy." It's in most video stores.